Yvan Muller: “Not sure I will race tomorrow” after tyre issues

Cyan Racing’s Yvan Muller says he is undecided on whether he will start this weekend’s World Touring Car Cup races after a litany of tyres issues at the Nürburgring.

The Lynk & Co driver suffered a puncture in Friday’s opening practice session as well as splitter issues, before getting another tyre delamination in FP2.

Muller, along with his Cyan Racing team-mates Thed Björk, Ma Qing Hua and Santiago Urrutia, took part in the additional test session organised by the WTCR officials ahead of qualifying on wet tyres.

But a further delamination in qualifying meant that he could only managed 10th on the grid – albeit on pole for Race 2 – an issue which has left the four-time world champion questioning his participation.

“That was a tricky [qualifying], I had a tyre failure on my first run again, so we decided to the second run but I had a vibration all the way through,” Muller said in the post-qualifying press conference.

“It’s a shame for Santi and Yann because I think they were capable of doing pole position but because of the risk, they decided not to let them out.

“We need to survive tomorrow [in the races] but right now I have to tell you that I am not sure I will race tomorrow, I don’t want to die.”

Urrutia backed up his team-mates views on the race, saying: “We need to survive the race because we have been having some tyre issues, that’s the most important thing.

“We have three cars in the top 10 so we are really happy with the qualifying performance. We were expecting Audi to be quick but maybe not that quick.”